Vessels – Ships – Barges

Vessels, Ships and barges have a wide variety of maintenance needs, all of which can vary greatly in scope of work. For example many barges need to be cleaned periodically so that they can have an ABS inspection performed on them to determine their soundness. Also barges need to have anodes welded onto them for cathodic protection. Many Navy and Coast Guard ships come into port to their bottoms cleaned and inspected as well, although the cleaning methods are quite different. When cleaning a barge you may need to utilize a brush cart to remove heavy, hard and soft marine growth some of which can be over 18 inches thick, while on coast Guard vessels you have to determine the amount of growth and what type of bottom paint is on the ship so as not to harm the paint. Coast Guard and Navy ships will also have their props polished while at port to remove any accumulated marine growth also. When Coast Guard and Navy ships are in port often they will have other routine maintenance done to them which may require the installation of coffer dams over the intake grates or around the shafts, all of which needs to be accomplished within the Navy ships husbandry manual regulations.